IMC 2018: Sessions

Paper -a will evaluate the significance of the Ordinances of 1311 and argue that they advanced clerical interests as much as secular ones. The paper thus not only identifies a new influence behind the most important attempt at political reform in the reign of Edward II, but also sheds new light on the discussions which led to the Ordinances' compilation and promulgation. Paper -b will consider the execution for treason by Henry IV of at least a dozen Franciscan friars in the spring of 1402. The precise nature of their treason varies in the accounts of different chroniclers, who also have very different reactions to the executions. This paper will examine these different accounts against the background of contemporary ideas about 'treason by words' and 'speaking truth to power'. Paper -c explores the impact of statutory legislation on the political, economic, religious, and social life of late medieval England. This is a question that has only ever been addressed in relation to specific statutes, never on legislation as a general phenomenon of the royal executive. Enough work has been done to make it clear that the picture varied considerably, but why there was such great variation has never been systematically explored. Such an investigation sheds light on contemporary attitudes to the purpose of law-making, its enforcement (or lack thereof), and its reception in the localities.